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Chile: Church Burned Down, Adding to Growing Number of Targeted Churches

ChristianToday.com reports that a Catholic church in southern Chile is the latest casualty from protests that have been targeting churches.

Police reported that at least 16 churches, both Protestant and Catholic, have been burned and desecrated in the past year.

Many of the protesters are students who want the government to restore native lands that were overtaken by Spanish invaders or more recent government authorities.

Back in June, protesters targeted another Catholic church and took a ten-foot tall statue of Jesus on the cross from the church and dragged it through the streets.

A spokesman for the student protesters, however, condemned the desecration of the statue and said it was committed by protesters who did not represent the true goals of the movement.

Chile’s Interior Minister Mario Fernandez also condemned the destruction of the church and statue: "What we have just seen is a very troubling symptom of what some people are starting to do to our country," he said.

Chile’s current president is socialist party leader Michelle Bachelet.